04/16/24
March 03, 2019
SportsFilter: The Sunday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
No way they're losing to another 16 seed this year. They just need to hope 'n pray that Duke gets knocked out before they have to face them again. That goes for the ACC tourny as well
posted by NoMich at 09:41 AM on March 03, 2019
Virginia just about has a 1 seed locked up, I don't think there's anything "may" about it. There's a pretty wide gulf between UVa, Duke, Gonzaga, and the larger group of teams fighting for that 4th 1 seed. Duke may fall back if they trip too much without Zion, but they seem to be handling their lesser opponents OK.
If UVa wins out the season and just gets to the the ACC final, they're probably the overall 1 seed and end up in the east region with almost home games in DC for the 16 and 8 games. If they drop one of their last two games and don't make the ACC final, they're probably still a 1, but another team may get preferential location over them for which bracket they're in, meaning they'd probably play in the South.
posted by LionIndex at 10:35 AM on March 03, 2019
I see Syracuse giving them problems, but Louisville should be an easy one for them.
posted by NoMich at 10:45 AM on March 03, 2019
Neither of those games should be considered "easy", but pretty much all of Virginia's games from here out will be against potential tournament teams. If they lose to Syracuse, which is kind of a bubble team right now, that win might propel Syracuse into the tournament. Louisville is already a lock to get in. So, losing either of those isn't really a huge problem for Virginia to maintain a hold on a 1 seed. Losing their first game of the ACC tournament, which they've locked up a double bye for, might be an issue, and could cause them to slip if they've lost either or both of their last regular-season games.
posted by LionIndex at 01:41 PM on March 03, 2019
No team that anyone cares about should ever have to play Syracuse in March. And they should be forbidden from wearing their orange uniforms for the rest of the season so their 2-3 zone doesn't look like a giant tentacled sea creature.
posted by beaverboard at 05:31 PM on March 03, 2019
There's a pretty wide gulf between UVa, Duke, Gonzaga, and the larger group of teams fighting for that 4th 1 seed
Yeah, I would say Duke, Tennessee, Gonzaga are up top with UVa, Michigan, Michigan State, and a few others following.
What always hurts in the NCAAs is how highly the media seems to favor teams from the ACC over other conferences and how some smaller schools get no credit even though they are really good but can't schedule dates with big schools to improve their media cred. (When I say media it is actually anyone associated with NCAA Basketball who loves the ACC ... because it brings in the most $$ for everyone.)
What that sets up is a match between a team from ACC that lost in it's league tournament vs a team from a smaller conference that may have won it's last 16 games in a row. A team that won it's conference gets a 16, a team that got beat in the ACC is 1 .. that's really not a true "1 vs 16" matchup.
I see this year's ACC line at Syracuse with Louisville not making the cut, especially with most of the other big conferences having at least 5 or 6 teams battling it out without a clear cut champion at the moment.
None of the above matters if Duke is healthy as nobody will beat a healthy Blue Devils squad this year.
posted by cixelsyd at 10:26 PM on March 03, 2019
Nah, I'm pretty sure UVa has a 1 seed on lockdown.
posted by LionIndex at 09:07 PM on March 04, 2019
Seeing that Virginia may get a 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and could face another pack of hungry unknowns in the first round, I'm proactively seeking loss counseling services.